U.S. Authorities Examine Whether Suspect Contacted Militants in the Caucasus

U.S. authorities are focusing on a trip one of the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects made to Russia last year and asking whether he contacted militants in the restive Caucasus region.

Investigators are searching for any signs of whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev's visit to the Dagestan region, which borders Chechnya, played a role in his radicalization and may provide clues on whether foreign terrorist groups were involved in planning the attack, the officials said.

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A thermal image taken by police shows Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hiding in a boat before he was arrested Friday.
Massachusetts State Police

The bombings last Monday killed three and injured more than 175 people. Mr. Tsarnaev, 26 years old, was killed in a shootout with police during a chaotic getaway attempt early Friday.

Mr. Tsarnaev's 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar, the other suspected bomber, has been drifting in and out of consciousness since being captured Friday night after a daylong manhunt near Boston, a U.S. law-enforcement official said. He is being treated for a gunshot wound in the throat, among other injuries, officials said, and was listed in serious condition at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital.

Officials said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's condition prevented U.S. agents from interrogating him. Justice Department officials initially hoped to charge him Sunday afternoon, but delayed the move until at least Monday.

Video

Anwar Kazmi, a board member of the Islamic Society of Boston, describes visits that bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev made to the Society's center. Photo: Associated Press.

Where did the alleged bombers of the Boston Marathon come from? What were their career aspirations? What can we learn from their online media presence? WSJ's Jason Bellini has "The Short Answer."

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The federal High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, a specialized interrogation team led by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, is on standby in case Mr. Tsarnaev becomes capable of communicating, even if only in writing, officials said.

U.S. authorities have been scouring their records on Tamerlan Tsarnaev after discovering in the aftermath of bombings that the FBI had interviewed him in 2011 at the request of authorities in Russia as he planned his visit. The request, an FBI statement said, was "based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country's region to join unspecified underground groups."

Lawmakers said Sunday the FBI will face tough questions from Congress about the earlier interview. "The ball was dropped," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on CNN. "The FBI missed a lot of things...There was a lot to be learned from this guy."

At the time, FBI interviewers found no cause for concern about Mr. Tsarnaev's activities and closed their files after reporting their findings to Russian authorities, a federal law enforcement official said. The FBI receives thousands of such requests from foreign agencies and unless it finds cause for deeper investigation, agents aren't authorized to conduct surveillance or otherwise track people, the official said. Russian officials made no subsequent request about Mr. Tsarnaev, the official said.

In an interview Sunday, the suspects' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, lamented the 2011 FBI interview as a missed opportunity, saying he would have told the FBI about his nephew's extreme views if asked.

Mr. Tsarni, who lives in Montgomery County, Md., said he spoke with Tamerlan Tsarnaev and was "shocked" by the "radical crap" he heard—though two days earlier he had said in an interview that his nephews weren't ideologically motivated, but "losers" who didn't adjust to American life.

If he had been asked by the FBI, said Mr. Tsarni, "I would say the brains of this young man are not well. It is way better that you fix it now. If it had been jail, he would be way better off in jail than on a slab in Boston."

FBI officials around the country have regular interaction with mosque leaders to discuss concerns and hear information about possible threats, a program that has proved useful since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Muslim community leaders in Boston over the weekend said mosque members who knew the brothers have been providing information to the FBI about their interactions with the suspects.

The FBI is particularly interested in Tamerlan Tsarnaev's trip from January to July 2012 to Makhachkala, Dagestan, where Mr. Tsarnaev's father now lives, U.S. officials said. The visit and whether he associated with militants is "key to what happened since we last talked to him," said a U.S. law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

Another U.S. official briefed on the probe said the biggest question is "what he did on the trip and did he receive training or ideological guidance?"

The brothers identified themselves as ethnic Chechens. Dagestan is a Russian region that borders Chechnya, which has been the center of a bloody separatist uprising against Russia.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, said in an interview Sunday that he sees the six-and-a-half-month travel period as likely the turning point. While in Dagestan, he said, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was with a family member who is believed to have been a radicalizing influence. Mr. Rogers declined to identify the family member.

U.S. officials are working to understand whether that person introduced Mr. Tsarnaev to other extremists in the region or facilitated training in explosives or other instruction, Mr. Rogers said. "I believe this family member was at least in some way contributing to his radicalization from nonviolence to violence," Mr. Rogers said.

Mr. Rogers, a former FBI agent, defended the bureau's handling of the inquiry into Mr. Tsnarnaev, saying it acted as would be expected based on the information it had. The FBI did a "thorough investigation," he said.

Federal authorities said that in the wake of the bombings, agents are scouring every part of the brothers' lives to try to understand their motive, and whether any local or international influences played a role in the attacks.

Investigators say that thus far, Tamerlan Tsarnaev's path to violence appears more similar to those of mass shooters such as the assailant in the Aurora, Colo., killings last year. Investigators have turned up no indication the Tsarnaev brothers were directed by or under the control of "any foreign organization," including Chechen separatists or al Qaeda, one official said.

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